  “Not Winter’s sullen face, Not the fierce, tawny race In arms arrayed, Not hunger shook their faith; Not sickness’ baleful breath, Not Carver’s early death, Their souls dismayed.” Illustrated capital Ascending the broad flight of steps leading to the brow of the hill, and turning to the left, we tread upon sacred, hallowed ground. Here were buried, in that dark, sad winter in which they landed, half of their little band. The terrible tale is told concisely by the narrator already quoted. “This month (March) thirteen of our number die. And in three months past dies half our company—the greatest part in the depth of winter, wanting houses and other comforts, being afflicted with the scurvy and other diseases which their long voyage and unaccommodate condition brought upon them, so as there die sometimes two or three a day. Of a hundred persons scarce fifty remaining; the living scarce able to bury the dead; the well not sufficient to tend the sick, there being in their time of greatest distress, but six or seven, who spare no pains to help them.” They buried them on this hill, and levelled the graves, and in the spring following planted grain above them, that the Indians might not know the extent of their great loss. PILGRIM EXILES. At four different times the remains have been discovered. In 1735, in a great rain, the water, rushing down Middle Street to the harbor, caused a deep gully there, exposing human remains and washing them into the sea. In 1855, workmen engaged in digging trenches for the water works found parts of five skeletons. The graves were in the roadway, about five rods south of the foot of Middle Street. One of the skulls was sent to a competent anatomist in Boston, and was pronounced to be of the Caucasian race. The remains were carefully gathered and placed in a metallic box, properly inscribed, and interred on Burial Hill, subsequently being deposited in the chamber of the canopy over the Rock, at its completion in the year 1867. Again, on the 8th of October, 1883, during grading on the hill, other remains were found which were carefully removed, and afterwards, on the 20th of November, enclosed in a lead box and re-interred on the precise spot of their original burial. Directly over the grave a granite slab has been placed by order of the town, bearing an appropriate inscription. On the 27th of November, 1883, |
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